Improvement in indicators



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

QHARLES H. DUNHAM, OF GARDINER, MAINE.

IMPROVEMENT IN INDICATORS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 153, I60, dated July 21,1874; application filed May 15, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES H. DUNHAM, of Gardiner, in the county of Kennebec, State of Maine, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Indicators, of which the following is a description sufiieiently full, clear, and exact to enable any person skilled in the art or science to which my invention appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, forming a part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a plan of my improved indicator, and Fig. 2 a vertical lateral section of the same.

Like letters indicate corresponding parts in the different figures of the drawing.

My invention relates to that class of indicators which are used for denoting the contents of packages of merchandise, and consists in a novel construction and arrangement of the parts, as hereinafter more fully set forth and claimed, by which a cheaper and more effective implement of this character is produced than is now in common use.

The extreme simplicity of my invention renders an elaborate description unnecessary.

In Figure 1, A is the body of the indicator, which is centrally mortised and provided with the plate B. The plate is slotted laterally to form a series of bars, D D, each bar being provided with a slide, 0. The'slides areheld in position on the bars by means of the lips or flanges E E, Fig. 2, which are bent under the bar, as shown, and press against it sufliciently hard to hold the slide in any desired position. Upon one side of the plate B there are arranged a series of numbers or figures from 1 to 9, corresponding with the slides, several figures of the same kind being arranged in a row or line,

7 and on a line with a slide-that is to say, all

of the ones being arranged together on a line opposite the first slide, all of the twos opposite the second slide, and so on through the seriesor in such a manner that the slide may be moved to cover all of the figures opposite, the fives and nines being represented in Figure l as so covered.

From the foregoing the nature and operation of my invention will be readily understood by all conversant with such matters.

It is well known to retail dealers in boots and shoes, who keep their stock in drawers and boxes, that it is very difficult to tell what.

sizes are on hand, or in any particular drawer or box, after a part of the stock is sold out, without looking over the entire contents.

My invention is designed to obviate this 7 difliculty, and to that end I employ an indicator constructed as described, which is attached, in a prominent place, to the box or drawer containing the boots or shoes; or may be placed in the drawer or box with the same, as may be preferred. The numbers on the indicator are intended to correspond with the numbers or sizes of boots or shoes, the numbers left exposed or uncoveredv by the slides representing not only the sizes but also the quantity of each size remaining unsold, or in the drawer or box at any given time. For instance, a drawer provided with the indicator is filled with shoes, three pairs each, from ones to nines. It the indicator is moved to correspond with the sales, when two pairs of ones,

one pair of threes, three pairs of fives, and three pairs of nines are sold, the indicator will be arranged as shown in Figure 1, showing at aglance the exact amount and kinds of the remaining stock. 4

It will be obvious that the indicator may be used for other purposes; also that any number of figures may be employed, or letters used instead of figures, without departing from the spirit of my invention. The body A may also be omitted, and the plate B be attached directly to the drawer.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is- In combination with the slotted plate B, bearing a series of figures between the slots, a series of. sliding plates, 0 0, having the curved spurs E E looking into the slots, as and for the purpose set forth.

CHARLES H. DUNHAM.

Witnesses:

\ Josnrn E. THAYER, EUGENE CoLBnRN. 

